Is Automata Theory Important?

As was explained in the other answers, automata theory is important conceptually as a simple computational model that we understand well, and regular expressions and automata have many real-life applications.

Is it important to study automata theory?

Through automata, computer scientists are able to understand how machines compute functions and solve problems and more importantly, what it means for a function to be defined as computable or for a question to be described as decidable .

Is automata theory useful for NLP?

The theory of automata provides e cient and convenient tools for the representation of linguistic phenomena. Natural language processing can even be considered as one of the major elds of application of this theory (Perrin 1993). ... linguistics at the Institut Gaspard Monge-LADL in Paris, France.